1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a repair kit for removing dents from a sheet of metal.
2. Description of Related Art
The skin of an airplane is typically constructed with sheets of metal that are riveted to a frame. The sheet metal may become dented, thereby reducing the structural integrity of the aircraft. It is desirable to repair the aircraft by removing the dents from the skin.
Dents can be removed by pounding the deformed material with a mallet. Such a method is both time consuming and requires a certain level of skill. Additionally, pounding a dent out of an airplane skin may require the repair person to enter a generally inaccessible area of the aircraft.
In the more flexible areas, the electromagnetic forces will pull a sizable area of material surrounding the dented area. Stresses inherent to a formed sheet metal fabrication frequently result in the entire area returning to the original dented position or contour. This is known as "spring back" and is quite common in the forming of sheet metal.
There have been developed electromagnetic devices that create an attractive magnetic force which will pull the dent out of a sheet of metal. Electromagnetic dent removal devices can be placed on the outside of the airplane skin to allow an operator to remove dents without entering the aircraft. It has been found that the magnetic force of the device may cause the sheet metal to resonant. This is particularly true for flexible metal sheets. When resonance occurs, the energy emitted by the electromagnetic device further excites the resonance instead of pulling the dent. Consequently, either the dent is not pulled out of the skin, or the device requires more power to perform the dent removal operation. It would therefore be desirable to have a means for damping the resonance of the skin and preventing "spring back" during the dent removal process.